The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Google shares plunge after earnings miss

January 19, 2012 | 1:27
pm

Larry Page's honeymoon at the helm of Google may be officially over.

Google reported strong fourth-quarter revenue and profit results after the market closed Thursday (including quarterly revenue of $10.58 billion, its highest for a single quarter) but they missed analyst expectations.

Revenue in the three months ended in December rose to $8.13 billion, with earnings per share of $9.50. Analysts had expected $8.43 billion and $10.51.

Page, the chief executive, did not acknowledge the shortfalls in a statement: "Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year."

He added that the company's Google+ social network has grown to 90 million users, more than double the number it announced in October.

Google is also continuing its hiring spree. It hired more than 1,000 people in the last three months of the year. It now has 32,467 full-time staffers.

Despite concerns that Google is spending loads of money, Wall Street had seemed more confident that Page was the right steward to keep Google's moneymaking machine on track. The stock had gained 7% since Page took over as CEO last April.